There
are few things in life as heady and prestigious as being able to claim a
World Record for some amazing feat. Which is undoubtedly why so many people
and entities are constantly declaring them.

Well the explosive
demolition industry is no different, and over the years there has always
been a healthy competition for, and conflicting claims to, World Records.
Occasionally these quests for recognition have been known to get a little
trivial (Most people watching an implosion from a public viewing area?
Largest post-tensioned, reinforced concrete structure in North America?
Tallest building in the Caribbean?)

Monumental achievements
in Barbados aside, implosionworld.com recognizes the following projects
as holding the current World Record in specific major categories. Please
note that we have intentionally withheld the names of specific blasters
and contracting companies. It is generally recognized that, price and
logistics being equal, several of the industrys top firms are capable
of performing any of these projects (in fact, five different entities
currently hold these records). In addition, if youre really
intent on associating these events with blasters, most can be found in
other areas of this website and others if you snoop around enough.

This impressive
structure was built by an army of 2,000 laborers in 1918 and opened
to the public in 1919. For seven decades it served as the centerpiece
of Northeast Philadelphia before finally succumbing to 12,000 pounds
of explosives in 1994.

At 2.7 million
square feet of floor space, the Sears Merchandise Center has staved
off numerous illegitimate claims to this record, most notably the
Hudsons building in Detroit (2.2 million sq. ft.) and several
'large-but-hollow' structures including the Carburendum Building
in Niagara Falls and the Kingdome in Seattle. Although the felling
of these latter buildings presented their own unique challenges,
each fell well short of the actual blasting footage necessary to
compete for this record.

At
first, protesters objected loudly to the razing of this 26-story,
439-foot tall structure located in the heart of Detroits
commercial district. But years of neglect and decay precluded
an economically viable alternative, and the building was brought
down in 1998.

After an interior
portion of this 906-foot concrete stack collapsed during construction
(killing 4 workers), blasting specialists were rushed to the scene
to explosively fell the remainder of the structure. To the blasters
surprise, the concrete was so inferior that the massive stack
telescoped straight down instead of laying out into
a prepared trench as anticipated.

Nonetheless,
the endeavor was a success, and has held this record since 1982.

Many
industry experts feel that this blast holds several legitimate records,
including Worlds
Most Peculiar Demolition Scenario.
In April 2001, a Canadian pilot flying in a dense fog crashed his
single-engine Cessna straight into a 1,217-foot tall TV transmission
tower so straight, in fact, that his plane remained stuck
like a dart in the top of the tower. Demolition experts were called
in to recover the wreckage by felling the structure with explosives,
and set a new height record in the process.

(Note: Transmission-tower
demolitions are placed in a separate category because they are
not free-standing. Support wires attached to various
points on the tower remain connected to the ground throughout
the demolition process, thereby maintaining an element of physical
control notably dissimilar to other types of explosive demolition
projects)

LONGEST
EXPLOSIVELY DEMOLISHED STRUCTURE

Several
blasting firms have laid claim to demolishing 2,800+ foot bridges,
but it always seems to turn out that the structure was either blasted
in phases or that approach lanes and/or conventionally-demolished
sections were factored into the total. Until an actual record can
be verified, this record remains unknown.

?

MOST
STRUCTURES DEMOLISHED AT ONCE
(SHARED BY TWO PROJECTS)

Stelco
Steel Plant
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

This
1997 blast was the centerpiece of a major plant upgrade and involved
the simultaneous demolition of 20 structures including warehouses,
storage sheds and smokestacks. The tricky part; all of the structures
were constructed of steel, which is generally considered more difficult
to work with than reinforced concrete.

Bow
Valley Medical Center
Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Thirteen months
after the Hamilton project, a separate team of explosives experts
performed an equally ambitious 20-building undertaking at one of
Calgarys most historic institutions.

There were significant
differences between the two events; whereas the Stelco blast involved
steel structures in a remote industrial environment, Bow Valley
involved taller concrete structures nestled in a dense residential
neighborhood. Overall, Bow Valley seemed to take the edge in difficulty
due to the added burden of intense pre-blast publicity that eventually
required the management of tens of thousands of sentimental spectators
(at one point the blast was delayed 20 minutes while several hot-air
balloons violated air-space restrictions and swept in low over the
complex).

This record
was ignominiously set in March 2001 when, in an attempt to destroy
all religious monuments seen to compete with Islam, Afghanistans
ruling Taliban ordered explosives experts to demolish two of the
worlds largest standing Buddas. The historical statues,
rising 175 and 120 feet respectively, had been hewn out of sandstone
cliffs and dated back to the age of Christ.

The explosive
demolition was sharply criticized by leaders around the world,
and many others have since expressed grief at the loss of what
the BBC called one of Asias greatest archeological
treasures.